From Caissa three players participate in the Hong Kong Prelims 2014. This is an important tournament, first because it is rated – that is, it is one of the only two rated tournaments held in Hong Kong. Second, because if you end in the top 8 you qualify to play in the immediately following Hong Kong Finals. And the Hong Kong finals, aka Hong Kong National Championship, is the qualifying tournament to represent Hong Kong at the Chess Olympiad, the most important global country vs. country tournament – held this year in Norway.
Lot at stake thus for Caissa players and trainers Aravind Mahadevan and David Garceran Nieuwenburg and Caissa’s youth member Gerent Lee.
Unfortunately in last Monday’s round 2 Aravind and Gerent had to play against each other which resulted in a win for Aravind. David also won which puts him to first place of the ranking after last week’s win due to his opponent not showing up.
IM Marcos Llaneza Vega writes down his move against Mohan Kumar Gurung watched by Alberto Muniz Pardino playing with black and a dangerous bishop against Ian Scott
The price to pay for being (temporary) on first place is the inevitable confrontation with the better players and for round 3 David is paired against Alberto Muniz, a top 3 player by tradition by now. Aravind will play against Jake Chan who calmly started with two draws and who surely is eager to keep his undefeated status.
Other games to look forward to are between CM Chak Man Chan and Christopher Masters and Robin Lai (Hong Kong’s pride in the Hong Kong International Open) and Raphael Chang (one of the strongest performing (youth) players in the winter competition).
Ranking and Cross Table after Round 2
